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Hi everyone,

does anyone have a photo of a C-130 with its formation lights glowing? I saw one on approach to Ramstein tonight that - IIRC - had no nav lights on, but a couple of large, dim green lights along the fuselage. There was one in front of and one behind the wing and one on the tail, plus a number of small ones here and there. I think I've found out that these are used to provide orientation for pilots of other aicraft flying in formation, but I'd much appreciate a photo for comparison.

Cheers!
aloges

If you are talking about kinda green strips those are the slime lights.. I don't think those are powered, but kinda glow in the dark

captoveur wrote:If you are talking about kinda green strips those are the slime lights.. I don't think those are powered, but kinda glow in the dark

They are powered. You don't want to look like a flying glow-stick when someone unfriendly might see you...

Look here.

Sounds like what you saw was a USMC KC-130. The standard USAF/USANG C-130 is pretty sparse of the stip lighting.

Click Click D'oh wrote:Sounds like what you saw was a USMC KC-130. The standard USAF/USANG C-130 is pretty sparse of the stip lighting.

The USAF HC-130s and MC-130's have them.

miamiair wrote:The USAF HC-130s and MC-130's have them.

I've never seen them on the tail on USAF birds.

miamiair wrote:

Click Click D'oh wrote:Sounds like what you saw was a USMC KC-130. The standard USAF/USANG C-130 is pretty sparse of the stip lighting.

The USAF HC-130s and MC-130's have them.

As do the USAF KC-10's.

Thanks everyone, that's quite informative!